FAMOUS RIDES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 49, Issue 68, 31 December 1928, Page 7

FAMOUS RIDES

WHAT HISTORY REVEALS. The beat of hoofs sounding through the night was often a sign of some daring deed of urgency pushed through many dangers by flood and fell as well as upon the turnpike road. In Romance and History the splendid horses galloped until they dropped to death. "When the great Elizabeth lay dying, Sir Robert Carey sat booted and spurred to carry the tidings to the Scottish King in Edinburgh (writes Richard Moreton in the " Newcastle Weekly Chronicle"). A fair hand dropped a priceless ring through the casement, tlie signal of j the decease in "Christian and comfortable fashion" of the Lioness of England. On, on through the night went Sir Robert on that wild dash to Scotland. Cecil had screened the news of the death from the council, being a* lordly Theobald's plotting in readiness for the coming of the new King. The journey was finished in record time, and Sir Robert was the first to kneel before the Scottish King in Holyrood and hail him as James the First of England. The "new sun" had risen, and rich was the reward for the ardent messenger. When Cromwell expired in the Palace of Whitehall on the afternoon of September 3. 1658. it was the anniversary of the glorious victory oi Dunbar of Worcester. Four strong horsemen rode north, south, east and west to tell the people of England the Protector was no more. Harrison Ainsworth glorified the scoundrel Dick Turpin as hero of the ride to York on "Black Bess." It was quite untrue. Defoe, the great journalist, proved it was a highwayman named Nick who performed the feat on a roan mare years before Turpin was hanged at xork. Nick robbed a man at Gad's Hill, Kent, it 4 a.m. The following afternoon he was in York on the bowling green. Nobody believed he could have been in both places in so short a time, and he was acquitted by the jury. H© received Royal patronage and changed his name, on the King's command, to "Swiftnicks."

Tn the early days of the history of Natal, the world thrilled on hearing oi the whirlwind ride of Richard King. In 1842 the Boers settled at Maritzburg, and the British. Government regarded this as an affront. Captain Smith, with a "forlorn hope," was ordered to Port Natal. General Pretorius fell upon Smith's handful, and they made a hasty retreat to Durban, where they entrenched behind mud walls. Grahamstown was 400 miles away, and there was a relief force. "I will ride there," declared Richard King,, and he started off in the inky blackness across the veldt after creeping through the Boer lines. After a short rest in the scrub, in the morning light he rode on again, his horse lengthening its gallop. That night he rode into a Kaffir village. Before the yelling savages could seize their assegais, he had dashed clean through, sing the National Anthem. Torrential rains brought great floods, and the rivers .seemed unfordable. Again and again "he and his horse were nearly ■wept away. He at last reached the dusty streets of Grahamstown and spread the dire news. The relief reached Durban in the nick of time, for the Boer general had brought up heavy truns and was bombarding the wretched mud defences of the British. To-day Richard 1 King is still hailed as a great South African hero. Drurv Wake's ride headlong across the Balkans from Constantinople on a mission to Lord Clarendon in London met with a rebuff at the end. This brilliant young diplomatist received secret information —the Russian troops wore passing over the Pruth to threaten Turkey. He knew a steamer had sailed for London with dispatches from the Ambassador in Constantinople with contrary news, saying everything was quiet. Hence the ride to outpace the steamer if ho could. When after a terrible journey he reached railway communication he dropped asleep in the jolting train. He, however, made his way to London, and readied Lord Clarendon's house at midnight. "It is war," said the young diplomat to the hoary statesman. "Nonsense," replied Clarendon. "Have a cigar " As a result, England drifted unprepared into the Crimean War mainly through the artifices of the Emperor Napoleon the Third of France. When Lord Raglan issued his vague order to Lord Cardigan to "move against the Russians," the equerry was killed, as he rode forward. The second messenger did not understand the instructions, and the result was that though "everybody knew someone had blundered," Cardigan and the Light Cavalry attempted the impossible. "Through the valley of death" tho six hundred snorting horses bore the horsemen armed with spear, lance, and sabre. A pitiful remnant reached the British lines again.